Hi:

Car has resumed not turning off when I turn off key.

I

fiddled with/ jiggled / tugged on

the brown wire from the ignition coil which helped for a few hours.

We thought (and I still do) that it was a short in that wire continuing to supply power to the coil, but I don't have the ig wiring service manual :(

Does anyone know where this brown wire goes? There is one on the ballast resistor, but disconnecting it doesn't disable starting/running, so I don't think it ends up there.

Possibly the fuse box? I'd just like to run a new fresh wire (think that will cure it).

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__Stef -- 81 DL wagon B21A SU carb M46 314000km

connected A and G directly, ballast resistor to ig coil (running the wire over the engine). The brown wire apparently loops all through the harness around the engine block, and I am sure its bad.

Works normally now. Thank you John and Mario.

Any recommendations for casing to protect wires running over engines?

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__Stef -- 81 DL wagon B21A SU carb M46 314000km

Volvo did some crazy stuff with the wiring. The coil was moved from the right rear corner to the left fender but they left the ballast resistor. You could move the resistor to one of the coil mounting screws and then there would not be a wire running across the engine. You will still need the white wire to the ignition module but that can run around the front with the light and horn wires. Better than a wire over the engine. If you also have a white/red wire on terminal 1 of the coil, this goes to the tach and fuel pump relay.

Great, just make sure you don't have any other bad wires. Any new wires should be marked gas and oil resistant. Have fun.

Mario

Thanks all. Getting there... Since I am dumb as a brick on the subject I assume:

G is the ballast resistor
D is the starter motor which is mounted on the block (sort of)
A is the coil

Since brown A-G isn't killing the power brown G-D is possibly shorted to ground.

Can I just run wire from G to D to test?

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__Stef; 81 DL wagon B21A SU carb M46 __313k

Yes that's the diagram. Check between pins 16 and 30 on the starter it looks like a nice place for a cross.

Mario

Mario:

Does that mean that between the tabs on the starter motor which have spade terminated wires there can be a cross? Perhaps I should contact cleaner it?

Or the wires themselves have shorted somewhere in the "black jacket".

I should have mentioned that I get the battery idiot light lit at moderate intensity when I shut off the key and motor stays running.

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__Stef; 81 DL wagon B21A SU carb M46 __313k

Stef,

What you have is a cross with a battery lead. You should check the spades on the starter to see if they are touching each other or if the wires are crossed in the harness. A test you can do is to take the brown wire off the coil and connect a wire from the + of the battery to the lug on the coil where the brown wire went. See if she starts up and shuts down when you remove the lead. If she does you have to dig into the wiring. Don't leave that test connection up, fix the problem.

Mario

Stef,

When I look at the wiring diagram for my 82 there is a brown wire that comes from the starter (pin # 16 on the starter) that bypasses the ballest resistor and goes directly to the coil at start up. It looks like it is bridged to the brown wire from the ballest to the coil. If you removed the wire going into the ballest and the car still runs, you may have a cross with battery on that brown wire going to the starter. Hope that helps.

Mario